OL: “We won this match thanks to the heart”, savors Igor Tudor

At the Velodrome stadium,

A goal celebrated with the heart in front of the south turn, for a victory snatched in the same way against the sworn enemy. Olympique de Marseille defender Samuel Gigot let his joy explode, and his deliverance, throwing himself on the net of the south corner of the Vélodrome stadium full of rage to celebrate his opener (44th), Sunday, during the victory of his team against Olympique Lyonnais (1-0). With all the love he and his family have for OM.

“It’s wonderful to be able to score in an Olympico, it’s true that I dreamed of it. I dropped everything, it was beautiful. I almost ripped everything off but it was too beautiful. There was my dad, he dreamed of it. It’s a gift for him too, ”savored the Avignonnais, who arrived from Russia at OM this summer.

“The will to fight, to suffer”

But a gift, above all, for all the Marseille supporters who could finally enjoy, after too long weeks of seeing their team scuttled. And therein lay the problem, OM hadn’t maintained their lead in their last two games, against Tottenham on Tuesday in the Champions League (1-2), nor against Strasbourg last weekend in League 1 (2-2). With each time goals conceded at the very end of the match.

With the opening of the score of a defender with a header from a corner, just before half-time, exactly the same scenario as against Tottenham, and the start of the second half of the players of Igor Tudor, we were really freaking out to relive the same late evening as Tuesday. But this time they held on, and the OM coach knows why, to the point of appreciating this second act, which was largely dominated by the Lyonnais. “The second I liked a lot too, with a big heart, the will to fight, to suffer, to fight to take these three points at all costs. This applies to those who started as well as those who entered,” he stressed.

“Without these characteristics, we did not win”

Valentin Rongier has even seen his “old demons” catch up with them: “The more we retreat the more we expose ourselves, yet we tell ourselves not to retreat too much, we have to manage to erase that. In the last matches, that’s what happened, but this time we held on and we didn’t make the same mistakes. »

Thanks, also to a Pau Lopez still very good on Sunday, and rescuer of the Marseillais several times in front of Alexandre Lacazette. “It’s wonderful to have him because he’s very strong. But we won this match thanks to the heart, the desire, and the character of everyone on the field. I think that without these characteristics, we did not win the match. What I saw in the locker room was very beautiful, ”insisted the OM coach. Too bad that this character trait comes after the end of the group stage of the Champions League, and one game from the break for the World Cup. Otherwise OM would be higher than 4th place in Ligue 1, one point behind Rennes, but already six behind Lens.